


i will bend time (just to be with you)

by Cxnfiscated



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Day 3: Mermaids, Established Relationship, Fluff, Insecure Keith (Voltron), Insomnia, Intimacy, Klance AU Month, Late at Night, M/M, Mermaid Keith (but only kinda), Non-Sexual Intimacy, Smitten Lance (Voltron), mermaid lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 18:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17647757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cxnfiscated/pseuds/Cxnfiscated
Summary: “You shouldn’t sacrifice sleep for me.” His treacherous hands wandered over Lance’s shoulders and thwarted his plans of remaining distant to make a point. They drifted across shifting muscles, rippling like the surface of a lake, and followed Lance’s movements when he rose up to lean into them.“Sleep means nothing to me when it comes to you,” Lance answered, sincere blue eyes shining up to him.───────────────Keith has been exiled from the Merfolk for being half human. No settling into his life at shore he spends his nights at the shore but Lance doesn't let him spend them alone.





	i will bend time (just to be with you)

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3: Mermaid  
> Suggestion: Listen to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_IjFskbl-g) while reading.

Falling asleep was like holding a fistful of sand, now that he spent his nights on land and not underwater anymore. No matter what he did it always evaded him and if he managed to hold onto the tiniest bit of sand it would be, just like his sleep, too little and leave him dissatisfied.

 

Keith spent his nights tossing and turning, wrestling with the sheets as if they wronged him time and time again. His body would overheat and then be too cold, his skin would feel too tight to contain a thought and then at other times, his head would be an empty room with high sweeping walls, eerily quiet, too quiet for him to revel in it. He went to bed with his vision blurring from exhaustion and he rose to a world that still hadn’t snapped back into focus.

 

Keith had lost faith in his bed, it didn’t compare to the ones beneath the sea, the ones that actually deserved to be called his, but that was okay. It was a problem he would have to deal with, a problem he could live with. 

 

What he couldn’t live with was Lance refusing to listen to him.

 

“I told you time and time again, you don’t have to do this,” Keith hissed when he saw Lance’s familiar blue fins emerge from the water.

“And  _ I  _ told you I would ignore you,” Lance shook out his wet hair and snickered when Keith flinched at the droplets hitting his skin, “There’s no point in repeating what has already been said. You’re alone, you can’t sleep, so I’ll stay up with you. As easy as that.” 

 

Keith sank down next to Lance, sighing as shallow waves brushed against his ankles. His skin was itching with the desire to take the form that was built for this, to sprout scales shimmering like a rainbow dipped in red and contort his lungs until they didn’t need air anymore. Even if it was only for a night. But Keith wouldn’t give into it, wouldn’t listen to the longing in his chest.

 

“You shouldn’t sacrifice sleep for me.” His treacherous hands wandered over Lance’s shoulders and thwarted his plans of remaining distant to make a point. They drifted across shifting muscles, rippling like the surface of a lake, and followed Lance’s movements when he rose up to lean into them. 

 

“Sleep means nothing to me when it comes to you,”Lance answered, sincere blue eyes shining up to him. During the daytime, Keith could have pretended that those words were false, a mere exaggeration, produced by Lance’s tendency for the dramatics and his love for grande exclamations. But here? Beneath moonlight that turned him into an ethereal being and only the stars to witness his words, Keith didn’t hear anything but sincerity in his voice.

 

“It should.”Keith’s hands wandered along their path across Lance sharp cheekbones and his upturned nose, as Lance rolled over and buried the side of his face in Keith’s thigh. His shorts clung to his skin as the water from Lance’s hair dripped onto them but the nights were still warm and Keith was, for once, actually calm and content, so he didn’t care.

 

“Your hands feel so different when you’re in your human shape,” Lance said out of nothing and Keith stilled. He took a second to get himself together, to right the ground that had tilted beneath his feet and then let his hands continue their path across Lance’s skin. Lance, who without a doubt must have noticed his reaction, didn’t say anything.

 

“There is no way you can remember what my other form feels like,” Keith answered and bit down on his tongue when his words came out harsher than intended. He swallowed and soften his voice when he added, “It has been a long time since you’ve last seen it.”

 

_ Since I’ve run away like a coward because I couldn’t deal with the fact that I didn’t fit in with the rest of the merfolk _ .

 

“I don’t forget anything about you,” Lance answered smoothly, still not reacting to the oddity of Keith’s answer or the number of things that went unsaid.

“That’s a bold claim.”

“Scientists say that you only forget things your brain deems insignificant or useless, neither of which applies to you, love.”

 

Keith wanted to stop the smile on his lips from spreading, really, really wanted to. But Lance made smiling and being unhappy for longer than twenty minutes an almost herculean task. 

 

It was easier to just give in, let himself fall because he knew that Lance would be there to catch him.

 

“You don’t have to, though. I know you have a lot of bad memories,” Lance looked up at him, Keith’s hand still resting on his cheek, eyes full of concern.

“It’s been a month since I’ve been exiled.” Admitting it still burned like it just happened yesterday. Keith averted his eyes to hide the look on his face but Lance reached up and laced their fingers together like he had seen it anyway, “I should be able to deal with it.”

 

“You’ve been a victim of prejudice and injustice, Keith. You have the right to be hurt, to  _ feel  _ hurt.” Funny how words, even if they were spoken out of love, could still feel like a lie.

 

Keith looked down at Lance just as Lance rose up to press their lips together. The angle was awkward, Lance’s nose was digging into his cheek but he still felt the message behind it ring true ─  _ Believe me, please.  _ Keith began to move his lips joined their dance like the tides answering to the pull of the moon. 

 

When they broke off Keith still didn’t believe Lance, it would take more than a kiss, to change his mind, but he found that he actually  _ wanted to try. _ Lance being here, Lance abandoning his treasured hours of sleep just to be here with him even after the rest of the merfolk has abandoned Keith for his human side, made him want to be better.

 

For Lance and for himself.

 

“One day, we’ll swim together again. I─ I just need time.” Keith didn’t outright beg, even if it felt that way. To his warped brain every demand he had, everything he had to ask for, however little it may be, took one off a countdown, was a nine turning into an eight. Until it was a one turning into a zero and his time with Lance, this blissful dream, would be over.

 

“You have all the time in the world. I’m not going anywhere.” Their lips met anew, sealing Lance’s promise and as they shifted against one another, Keith allowed himself a shred of hope, a planted seed that carried the potential to grow, to flourish and prosper.

 

_ Maybe there was no countdown. _

 

**Author's Note:**

> uhm, yeah so what was that? Idk really now what I did with this. I completely pantsed it, like I was halfway through and still didn't know where I was going with it. But I'm happy with the way it turned out and hope that you are too and that you liked reading it!
> 
> Thank you very much for reading, I really appreciate it. Consider taking a look at my twitter (im funny, i swear) [@cxnfiscated](https://twitter.com/cxnfiscated) and maybe take a look at my actual baby [And Yet, The Sun Will Rise Again](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15206018/chapters/35268089)
> 
> thank you, byeee!!


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